Battlefields›Battle of Seacroft Moor
English Civil War

Battle of Seacroft Moor

1643
West Yorkshire, England
Era
English Civil War
Battle Type
Pitched Battle
Location
West Yorkshire, England
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Parliamentarians
VS
Victor
Royalists
Forces involved

Royalists: circa 20 troops of horse under George Goring; Parliamentarians: circa 2 troops of horse and 4,000 foot under Thomas Fairfax

Outcome
Decisive Royalist victory; Goring's cavalry routed Fairfax's extended, fatigued infantry column marching from Selby to Leeds, though the main Parliamentarian army and artillery train reached Leeds safely. Fairfax later called it one of the greatest losses his forces ever received.
The Battle

History & Significance

The Battle of Seacroft Moor took place in Whinmoor moor near the village of Seacroft, north-east of Leeds in West Riding on 30 March 1643 during the First English Civil War. In the battle, a Parliamentarian force commanded by Lieutenant-General Thomas Fairfax was decisively beaten by a Royalist cavalry force commanded by George Goring.

In December of 1642, the Earl of Newcastle brought his Royalist army south from Newcastle to reinforce and support King Charles and the Royalists in Yorkshire. Within the month of December, Newcastle captured a number of important towns including York, Tadcaster, and Leeds. In late January of 1643, the Parliamentarians fought back and partially restored the balance of power in northern England when they retook the town of Leeds.

Through the winter, the two opposing armies stood facing each other. Newcastle's field army was at Clifford Moor to the north-west of the occupied city of York. Ferdinando Lord Fairfax, the commander of the Parliamentarian army in the north of England had placed his field army 15 miles to the south of York at Selby. In Yorkshire, Parliamentary forces also held the important wool working towns of Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax in West Riding and the port of Hull.

On 22 February, Queen Henrietta Maria arrived at the Yorkshire port of Bridlington with war materials and English officers brought back to England to support the King. Queen Henrietta Maria's presence and the addition of the materials and officers to Newcastle's army were not only a boost to the Royalist effort in Yorkshire, but also persuaded at least one Parliamentarian Governor, Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Scarborough, to switch sides and declare for the King.

Because of these changes in the strength of the Royalists in Yorkshire, Lord Fairfax felt vulnerable with the dispersed positions of his forces and decided that it would be advisable to move his field army from Selby to Leeds.

In order to move his army from Selby to Leeds without the risk of his slow artillery train being attacked while in transit, Lord Fairfax decided to create a diversion designed to keep Newcastle's forces from leaving their positions to pursue the Parliamentarian convoy. Lord Fairfax, ordered his son, Lieutenant-General Thomas Fairfax, to take a detachment of infantry accompanied by three troops of cavalry and attack Tadcaster, threatening York.

Thomas Fairfax did as ordered. Before he arrived at Tadcaster, the Royalist garrison fled. After spending a few hours in Tadcaster destroying the Royalist fortifications, the Parliamentarians left marching west to meet up with Lord Fairfax in Leeds. Meanwhile, Newcastle dispatched his cavalry commander, Goring, and 20 troops of horse to confront Fairfax's Parliamentarians.

Confirmed battlefield location
The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of Battle of Seacroft Moor lies on Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.

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Everything a full report reveals about Battle of Seacroft Moor

This page covers Battle of Seacroft Moor. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside scheduled monuments and everything else the record holds within a few miles:

Overview
An interactive map of the location with every monument and battle plotted, and a plain-language history built only from what the record holds.
Monuments
The legally protected scheduled monuments around the location, each with its period, type and significance.
Battlefields
The battles and sieges fought on this ground, mapped and set on a timeline of the wider conflict.
Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Domesday
The settlement's entry in the 1086 Domesday Book: who held it, what it was worth, and the people who worked the land.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
LiDAR
Laser-scanned terrain that reveals earthworks hidden under fields and woodland, with likely features flagged.
Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
The books, county histories, charters and archives that mention this place, quoted with their sources.
Legal
The protected sites nearby and the metal-detecting, access and treasure laws that apply to this ground.
Spotlight
A deep dive into the most remarkable, lesser-known history of the place, traced back to the record.
Target Zones
For detectorists: the most promising ground to search nearby, ranked by confidence, with what to expect.
Timeline
The whole story of the location told era by era, from prehistory to the present day.
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Seacroft Moor

Barwick in Elmet large univallate hillfort and motte and bailey castle
Barwick in Elmet large univallate hillfort and motte and bailey castle
Scheduled monument · ~2.7 mi

Barwick in Elmet is a large univallate hillfort situated in Yorkshire, England, whose origins lie in the Iron Age. The monument comprises a substantial earthwork enclosure defined by a single defensive bank and ditch, demonstrating the characteristic form of later prehistoric fortified settlement…

Chemical Engineer / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Castle Hill motte and bailey castle
Castle Hill motte and bailey castle
Scheduled monument · ~4.5 mi

Castle Hill is a motte and bailey castle located in Yorkshire, England. The monument consists of a substantial mound with an associated bailey, representing a typical Norman fortification of the eleventh or twelfth century. Such earthwork castles were among the earliest form of castle constructio…

Rothwell Castle
Rothwell Castle
Scheduled monument · ~4.9 mi

Rothwell Castle is a medieval fortified stronghold located in West Yorkshire, England. The site represents a motte-and-bailey castle of Norman origin, constructed during the twelfth century as part of the network of defensive works established following the Norman Conquest. The castle comprises a…

Mike Kirby / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Carved rock known as the Grey Stone in Grey Stone Pasture, Harewood Park, 370m south east of New Bridge
Carved rock known as the Grey Stone in Grey Stone Pasture, Harewood Park, 370m south east of New Bridge
Scheduled monument · ~5 mi

The Grey Stone is a carved rock situated in Grey Stone Pasture within Harewood Park in Yorkshire. The monument comprises a natural stone that bears evidence of human modification, though the precise nature and extent of its carved features reflect customary practices of prehistoric or early histo…

Simon Cobb / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons
Manor Garth Hill ringwork
Manor Garth Hill ringwork
Scheduled monument · ~5.1 mi

Manor Garth Hill ringwork is a defended enclosure situated in Yorkshire, England, that dates to the medieval period. The monument comprises a circular or sub-circular earthwork formed by a substantial bank and external ditch, characteristic of ringwork fortifications constructed during the 11th a…

Stephen Craven / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Rock carved human figure 570m south of King Lane Farm
Rock carved human figure 570m south of King Lane Farm
Scheduled monument · ~5.2 mi

Rock carved human figure 570m south of King Lane Farm is a Neolithic or Bronze Age rock carving located in Yorkshire. The figure is carved into natural rock outcrop and represents one of the relatively rare examples of anthropomorphic rock art surviving from prehistoric Britain. The carving's pre…

Wbturnbull / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Length of Grim's Ditch 260m west of Brown Moor Farm
Scheduled monument · ~1.8 miles
Late prehistoric enclosed settlements in Gipton Wood, at the southern end of Oakwood Drive
Scheduled monument · ~1.9 miles
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In the same landscape

Battles near Battle of Seacroft Moor

Battle of the River Winwaed
655
~1.8 miles away
Battle of Leeds 1643
1643
~3.7 miles away
Siege of Leeds
1321
~3.9 miles away
Battle of Bramham Moor
1408
~5.7 miles away
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